STEPHIN MERRITT (Composer) releases albums under the band names the Magnetic Fields, the 6ths, the Gothic Archies, and Future Bible Heroes. With his band The Magnetic Fields, Merritt has written, produced and recorded eight albums to date. Their 1999 album 69 Love Songs was a 3-disc masterwork which garnered Merritt widespread acclaim, including "best of" year-end lists in Spin, Rolling Stone, The New York Times, LA Times, Washington Post and most other major national publications. In 2002, Merritt signed to Nonesuch Records. The Magnetic Fields performed as part of Lincoln Center's 'American Songwriters' series and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's 'Next Wave of Song'. Merritt has composed original music and lyrics for three music theater pieces directed by Chen Shi-Zheng; The Orphan of Zhao in 2003 for the Lincoln Center Festival; Peach Blossom Fan, produced at Cal Arts in 2004; and My Life As a Fairy Tale, at the Lincoln Center Festival in 2005. Merritt composed the score for the academy award nominated film Pieces of April (dir. Peter Hedges) and for the independent film Eban and Charley, and released soundtrack albums for each. His song "The Book of Love," was performed by Peter Gabriel and appears in the film Shall We Dance. He has composed incidental music for the HarperCollins' audio books of A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket and for Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and subsequently released an album Songs from A Series of Unfortunate Events. In 2008, Magnetic Fields toured in the US and Europe to support their new album, Distortion, on Nonesuch records. Additional information on Merritt and his work can be found at www.houseoftomorrow.com.

DAVID GREENSPAN (Book writer / Other Mother) was previously seen at MCC in José Rivera’s Sueño. Other credits include The Beebo Brinker Chronicles (Hourglass), Obie for his performances in Some Men (Second Stage) and Goethe’s Faust (Target Margin), The Wax (Playwrights Horizons), Lipstick Traces (Foundry), The Boys in the Band (Obie) and his plays Jack, The Home Show Pieces and 2 Samuel 11, Etc., (Home) Dead Mother (Public), She Stoops to Comedy (Playwrights Horizons, Obie), The Myopia (Foundry) and The Argument (Target Margin, Obie). An alumnus of New Dramatists, he has received Revson, McKnight, Guggenheim, Lucille Lortel Foundation fellowships and an Alpert Award in the Arts.

NEIL GAIMAN (Coraline novel author) is the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of the novels American Gods, Stardust, and Neverwhere. He is also the author of the Sandman series of graphic novels, and coauthor of the novel Good Omens with Terry Pratchett. Among the many awards he has won are the World Fantasy Award, Bram Stroker Award, and the Newbery Award for children's literature. Originally from England, Gaiman now lives in America. Visit him at www.neilgaiman.com.

JULIAN FLEISHER (Cat) is a singer who has appears regularly at such venues as Joe's Pub, BAM, Symphony Space, The Winter Garden, The Highline Ballroom, The Aspen Music Festival, The Mark Taper Forum and many others including the Actor's Gang in LA, where he and Martha Plimpton performed their sold-out nightclub act Save It for the Stage. Recently, he joined the cast of the 92nd St. Y's Lyrics & Lyricists tribute to Sammy Kahn and he is an alumnus of MCC's Miscast. Julian produced his own recording, Rather Big, (Modern Records) as well as both CDs by Kiki & Herb. He composed the music for off-Broadway's Almost, Maine, The Portland Stage's production of Rough Crossing, the Connecticut Rep's Love's Labors Lost and he is currently composing the new musical, Stop Talking. Julian hosts several popular podcasts including his own Julian Fleisher's Guilty Pleasures, a periodic survey of the songs we hate to admit that we love. www.julianfleisher.com

FRANCIS JUE (Father / Miss Forcible / Other Miss Forcible) Last season, Francis won Obie and Lortel Awards, plus Drama Desk and Drama League nominations, for playing 17 characters in David Henry Hwang's Yellow Face. He has also won awards for playing the Engineer in Miss Saigon, the Emcee inCabaret, Molina in Kiss of the Spiderwoman, and the Narrator in Into the Woods. Broadway credits include originating the role of Bun Foo in Thoroughly Modern Millie, the Madam in the 2005 revival of Pacific Overtures, and understudying Song in M. Butterfly. Other theatre includes Falsettoland, No Foreigners Beyond This Point, Hamlet, The King & I, and A Language of Their Own.

ELLIOT VILLAR (Mr. Bobo / Other Mr. Bobo) is thrilled to be making his debut at MCC. His New York credits include his role of “Elegba” in The Brothers Size (2008 Lucille Lortel nominee for Best Play) at The Public Theater and “Demetrius” in the New York Shakespeare Festival's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Regionally, he has appeared at The Yale Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington DC, The Studio Theatre, and the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. His Television and Film credits include: “The Return of Jezebel James”; Two Lovers and The Rebound (2009). He received his BA from Vassar and an MFA in Acting from the Yale School of Drama.

TRUE LOVE PRODUCTIONS, Jeanne Donovan Fisher and Laurie Gilmore (produced in association with) Broadway: 33 Variations, 13, A CateredAffair, Well, Medea starring Fiona Shaw and The Retreat from Moscow. Off-Broadway: True Love at the Zipper Theatre; VIENNA: LUSTHAUS (REVISITED) at New York Theater Workshop; bobrauschenbergamerica at the Next Wave Festival at BAM; The Tricky Part at the McGinn/Cazale Theatre; Shockheaded Peter at the Little Shubert; Suitcase and Everything Will Be Different at Soho Rep, Paradise Park at The Signature Theatre. Regional: Rocket to the Moon at Bard Summerscape, Summer 2005, and the Siti Company’s Hotel Cassiopoeia at the 2006 Humana Festival.

Coraline was commissioned by ST. ANN'S WAREHOUSE as part of the national series of works from MEET THE COMPOSER Commissioning Music/USA, which is made possible by generous support from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Helen F. Whitaker Fund, and the Target Foundation.